


Curls, Cricket, and Chaucer

by MostWeakHamlets



Category: Raffles - E. W. Hornung
Genre: Drinking, I'll update the tags as I go, M/M, PLEASE read my notes at the beginning, Pre-Canon, they're in school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 03:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18984583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MostWeakHamlets/pseuds/MostWeakHamlets
Summary: A series of stories from Bunny and Raffles' school days.





	Curls, Cricket, and Chaucer

**Author's Note:**

> So much of this I just had to kinda make up and go off of knowledge I have from Maurice and The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien. I tried doing research but when I saw how upper class students are at boarding schools today, I remembered how unjust the distribution of wealth is across the world and got upset and stopped researching. 
> 
> Despite all of this, I feel like I have pretty solid knowledge of how boys behaved in boarding schools and with their fags. I read a lot of primary sources where men discussed same-sex relationships in schools. It’s not that the boys were necessarily gay, they claimed, but they did fool around with each other. This also, unfortunately, lead to assault for some boys. Fags seemed to be especially targeted for assault. So, let this be a trigger warning.

Raffles’ cheeks grew redder by the minute as he took sip after sip of spirits. Campbell’s cheeks, as well, were growing red but it didn’t seem to be from the whiskey. The two boys sat on Raffles’s bed with their legs curled up under them. Their knees touched, and their hands occasionally brushed as they laughed. When they leaned over to grab the bottle of whiskey, sitting on the desk where Bunny sat, to refresh their glasses, they didn’t care to prevent themselves from bumping shoulders.

Bunny watched with sober, curious eyes. When Raffles showed him the whiskey he had snuck into the dormitories, he told him that he wouldn’t be allowed any. 

“Imagine the trouble I’d get into if you were caught getting into bed with whiskey on your breath,” Raffles had said. 

Friday nights were the best nights to sneak in contraband. All students were allowed a period of free time after classes to go into town. Some managed to have packs of cigarettes go unnoticed and others, more talented students, could slip in bottles of alcohol. 

Raffles had invited Bunny to stay in his room until late and had made sure that they could get a glass of milk for him from the kitchen for him. The milk had made Bunny feel even younger than what he was. While the older boys were drinking their whiskey, he was reduced to watching them with the childish beverage. 

Raffles poured more whiskey into the glasses that he had stolen from home. His family wouldn’t mind if the cheaper crystal was missing, he claimed. 

“Could you believe Hadley today?” Campbell asked, raising his glass to his lips. 

“Oh  _ God _ , I’m going to have a fit in his class if he keeps picking on me.”

“I liked the way that you stood up for yourself. Don’t know how you keep getting away with it, though.”

“Every other professor here adores me.” Raffles smiled. “They wouldn’t dare let Hadley lay a finger on my perfect record--”

“Perfect?”

“Decent record.”

Campbell laughed a sort of obnoxious laugh that only drunk people could produce. Raffles leaned in to grasp Campbell’s arm. Before letting go, he allowed his hand to trail down to his elbow and rest there for half a second. 

Bunny rested his head against his fist. He couldn’t place why but watching them upset him. It wasn’t the nature of the relationship--or whatever it was--that bothered him. Nothing that Raffles did with other boys was unusual at their school. Bunny learned quickly that lust didn’t die when there weren’t girls around. He was aware of the boys that looked Raffles up and down, and he was aware of when it was reciprocated. It never bothered him before, but now, having to watch it, his chest ached and his stomach turned. He repeated to himself that he didn’t admire Raffles any less, but he couldn’t get over the sickening feeling when Raffles brushed a lock of Campbell’s hair off his forehead. 

“Point is, I would never be reprimanded,” Raffles said. “Who would take over as captain of the cricket team while I’m being paddled?”

“Cricket isn’t in season right now. I’m sure they can handle losing their captain for the term.” Campbell sat forward. “You always get away with your devilishness. You always get what you want here--captain of the cricket team, high marks, you even claimed your fag before the rest of us.”

Raffles turned to Bunny. “And didn’t I pick well?”

“I don’t know,” Campbell said, trying to sound teasing. Bunny despised it. “I’m not sure if Manders is really the  _ crème de la crème.”  _

“Of course he is! I won’t stand to listen to anyone suggest that Bunny isn’t the greatest. He is everything I’ve ever wanted out of a fag. I couldn’t imagine anyone else being my partner in crime. He helps me in my mischief, and no one would ever believe that someone with such a baby face would ever help yours truly to sneak out past curfew. He is absolutely indispensable to me.”

Bunny blushed at the compliment. It was rare for Raffles to be so generous. 

“Speaking of curfew, shouldn’t the junior boys be in their rooms soon?” Campbell asked, taking his eyes off Raffles for only a second to glance at Bunny. 

Raffles looked at his clock on his desk and tutted. “Bunny, I’ll never hear the end of it if you’re late to bed again.”

Bunny didn’t like to feel like he was being pushed out, but he was too proud to stay where he wasn’t wanted. He rose. 

“Leave your glass. I’ll deal with it,” Raffles said, standing with him. 

He walked Bunny the short distance to the door. Bunny stole a look to Campbell, who was now lounging on the bed. His long legs were crossed at the knee, and his elbows supported him. His tie was already loose around his neck, and his collar would probably become undone within minutes of Bunny’s leaving. The eldest boys were not held to such strict standards as the younger boys, and if Campbell stumbled back to his own room a little bit after his own curfew with his uniform partially off, no one would bat an eye. Age guaranteed his safety, and it made Bunny jealous. He would be allowed more time--more intimate time--with Raffles than Bunny would ever get.  

“Goodnight, my little rabbit,” Raffles said. 

The affection in his voice made Bunny’s stomach flip. 

Occasionally, Bunny’s thoughts wandered to the limited time he and Raffles were given. Within six months, Raffles would be packing up for good. He would be leaving the campus, ready to never look back. He’d leave behind Bunny, who would be there for another five years, eventually getting his own fag. And he already dreamed about his own fag--shy and uncertain and looking for someone older and wiser to look up to. Bunny would be no Raffles, though, who was so sophisticated and admirable at 17.

“Best lay out an extra blanket tonight,” Raffles said. “It’s supposed to be unseasonably cold tonight.”

He laid a kiss on Bunny’s forehead.

It was completely out of character. Getting the compliments out of Raffles was enough for the night, but the physical affection that Bunny had watched other senior boys give their fags was overwhelming. Bunny was dizzy for a moment. He tried desperately to focus on Raffles' face--the curls that laid messily over his forehead and his sparkling, glassy eyes. If Bunny fell over on the floor, he would be so overcome with his happiness that he wouldn’t have time to feel embarrassed for swooning. 

“Off to your room,” Raffles said, opening his door. “If I hear that you were late, I’m going to take my bat to your ass.”

And that was the old Raffles--an empty threat from an inflated ego. Bunny had learned to brush them off months ago. Raffles didn’t even bat that well. 

As Bunny left, he turned around just in time to see Campbell pull Raffles away from the door and close it. 

The hallways were dark and cold. The unseasonable chill that Raffles had mentioned seeped in through the walls and left Bunny shivering. No doubt, his bed would be freezing when he climbed in. It would take forever to warm up enough to fall asleep. But even properly warm, Bunny imagined he would be awake for much longer. It would be hours for his exhaustion to overpower his restless mind and allow him some rest. 

He began stripping out of his clothes with the other boys. The thought of the tasks for the next morning made his heart pound. After breakfast, Bunny would accompany Raffles to the common rooms and they would study together. Raffles would help Bunny with mathematics when he needed it, but they would otherwise sit in silence. It would be marvelous silence. Bunny could spend hours in silence with Raffles. He loved watching the older boy work, his brain turning over his problems and his tan hands (though now turned pale from winter) recording his solutions. He’d read over Chaucer, making annotations and reading out particularly interesting passages out loud to Bunny.  

Bunny closed his eyes and pretended he was asleep. The boys around him whispered in the dark and pulled out the sweets and cakes they had snuck in earlier that day. Without classes the next day, they could stay up late without consequence to their performance.

“Manders? Do you want cake?” 

He didn’t respond. The boy across from him, Beckett, was always so nice and was a fag to another cricketer. They spent plenty of time together, but Bunny didn’t want to talk to him or accept any cake from him that night. He wanted to mope in peace as any young boy had the right to. The kiss had left him so unsettled, and the thought of Campbell being able to stay with Raffles while he was sent to bed did not help. 

“Manders, are you asleep already?” 

Bunny was careful to not move and make his breathing even and deep. Beckett didn’t say anything else, evidently believing Bunny’s bluff. 

Raffles would be proud. 


End file.
